Berry Tramel: Star Spencer's championship game win over Douglass a night of hoping and believing

Star Spencer celebrates its Class 4A title after defeating Douglass on Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman

"I know I work hard,” Love said. "I know my (Grant) kids work hard. These (Star Spencer) kids are special, too. They’re important to somebody. They mean something to me.”

Read those words again. Sometimes society forgets that truth. That the kids walking the halls of Star Spencer are as important as the kids in Edmond or Norman.

Sometimes it takes a ballgame to remind us. Sometimes it takes 14 years to remind us.

Star Spencer is no Cinderella. The Bobcats have been to the state semifinals four times since Hall arrived 10 years ago as an assistant coach.

"We’d get there, we’d get satisfied,” Hall said. "You can’t be satisfied until you hold up the gold ball.”But little by little, Star Spencer started believing. The Bobcats won this title the way most are won: through hard work in the summer and hard play in the autumn.

Hall’s coaches worked hard, too. They spent the night in their fieldhouse the last two Friday nights, preparing for playoff games.

At halftime Saturday night, Hall addressed his 18 seniors. Jamison and Terence Olds and Darwin Rideau and all the rest.

"You’ve got 24 minutes left in your high school careers,” Hall said. "How do you want to go out?”They went out holding that gold ball. Holding a ball and shining a light.

Berry Tramel: 405-760-8080; Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1.

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Berry Tramel, a lifelong Oklahoman, sports fan and newspaper reader, joined The Oklahoman in 1991 and has served as beat writer, assistant sports editor, sports editor and columnist. Tramel grew up reading four daily newspapers — The Oklahoman,...